To take HK artwork to an international audience in the top world-cities, Fong So and Hark Yeung are holding three parallel exhibitions, “NYCLondonHK – a Three-city Trilogy”, in July and August at three overseas venues, two in New York (the Grand Central Library and the Mulberry Street Library) and one in London (Westminster Reference Library).

• Grand Central Library, New York: 1 July to 30 August 2015
  http://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions
• Mulberry Street Library, New York: 2 July to 30 August 2015
  http://www.nypl.org/locations/mulberry-street
• Westminster Reference Library, London: 8 July to 24 August 2015
  https://www.westminster.gov.uk/westminster-reference-library-exhibitions/

With the publication of 10 books and over 12 public exhibitions to their credit individually and jointly, these two artists embarked upon this project to compare and contrast the three metropolises (New York, London and HK) in several ways, from the not-so-obvious (each has a SoHo area), recent unrest on the streets (the HK Umbrella Movement), to chance observations of animals (horses, cats), both the similarities (those with power [the police] versus those without [the working poor and students]), their interplay (the Snowden saga), and the differences such as their democracy development and their SoHos. Their exhibits of photographs, paintings, prints and sketches highlight the umbrella as a symbol for the defence of rights and basic liberties, and a symbol of protest as in the recent Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong, where people and protesters used umbrellas to protect themselves from harmful pepper spray and tear-gas fumes.

Purpose of crowdfunding and how will the funds be used

All preparative work of this project was made possible with a loan. This fund-raising is aimed to cover a small part of the following expenses:-

Transportation of artworks: (est.) HKD50,000

Printing of photos and mounting of artworks: (approx.) HKD45,000

Air-tickets between HK/New York/London: (approx.) HKD60,000

Overseas accommodation: (est.) HKD30,000,

Background of project owner

Fong So is a journalist-turned artist living and working in Hong Kong. He was an editor of a current affairs magazine for 18 years. Despite his training in traditional Chinese painting and the media of brush and ink, the content and genre of his work are obviously different from those of traditional Chinese painting. His works have been exhibited in Hong Kong, Korea and the UK. He also works extensively on woodcut prints. (Email: [email protected]; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/so.fong.94)

Hark Y has been a writer on international affairs and a photographer since 1989. She is the author of four books: Hong Kong SOHO (2008, in Chinese), Why do people in Norwich look young? (2011, in English), Will Hong Kong continue to be a place of Good Luck? from 1989 to 2010 (2011, in English), Shadow Walking 100 hours in NYCLondonHK (2015, in English).